Mad Max kicks off the Ultra HD Blu-ray revolution

Mad Max: Fury Road
Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road.

We still don't have an official launch date for Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and players - and it's been a long wait - but we do know the first four titles that are going to be released by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

They are high-octane action flick Mad Max: Fury Road, blockbuster disaster movie San Andreas, family favourite The Lego Movie, and the rather disappointing Pan.

Warner Bros. says it will have 35 titles available in the new format by the end of 2016, including Man of Steel and Pacific Rim.

Also of note is the fact that High Dynamic Range (HDR) is going to be supported from the off on these discs - the details of this UHD add-on are still being finalised, but it leads to a better balanced and more colourful picture.

Discs aren't dead yet

But isn't physical media irrelevant in the age of Netflix? Well, not quite. Getting 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) content to a television screen requires an awful lot of bandwidth, and until internet speeds catch up, popping a disc inside a player may well be the most convenient option for many of us.

The HDR element and support for up to 60 frames-per-second means this kind of content is going to be more practical on a physical disc for some time to come. And there will always be those who prefer actually owning their movies rather than streaming them.

As yet there's no news on when these discs or indeed the disc players will be available, but you can expect to hear a lot more about the format from CES this week. We'll bring you all the developments as they happen.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.